Apparatus for indicating a fair charge for electrical current consumed.



E. T. 11. MURRAY. APPARATUS FOR INDIGATING A PAIR CHARGE FOR. ELEGTRIGAL CURRENT GONSUMBD.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.10,1910.

1,121,121. Patented Dec.15,1914.

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? IIHI Illllllfillllllllll Til/5 JCALE [IND/C4755 ASSEfiMf/YT IN J/l/L L l/VGS PER QUARTER Wz'fmssn. A v jhwnfw Mau- %W44. m Ma/1 1,. 11mm B.'T. R. MURRAY. APPARATUS FOR INDIGATING A PAIR CHARGE FOR ELECTRICAL 011111111111 GONSUMED. APPLICATION FILED DEC. 10, 1910.

1,121,121. Patented Dec.15,1914.

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, M7716! I n wnior nary meter alone. .appear in the quarterly account a charge UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ETHELBERT THOMAS RUTHVEN MURRAY, 01 RADLETT, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR INDICATING A FAB CEARGE FOB ELECTRICAL CURRENT CONSUMED.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 15, 1914.

Application filed December 10, 1910. Serial No. 596,668.

To aZZ '"LLYIOIN. it may concern:

Be it known that I, ETHELBERT THOMAS Rrtrnvnx lllunnar, of The Eyrie, Radlett, Hertfordshire, England, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Indicating a Eair Charge for Electrical Current Consumed, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for indicating a fair charge for electrical current supplied designed to enable charges for the supply of electricity to be made upon a more simple and equitable plan than those heretofore used. With this object in view, it is necessary to know the rate at which a consumer takes his supply, or the' amount of the demand, since the maximum demand he makes on the suppliers determines, to a large extent. the capital which must be expended to 'ailord him the supply. The charges upo'n'thiscapital. together with all expenses necessary to keep the suppliers in a position to afford the supply, are known as stand-by or standing charges; and the costs of generating the energy supplied are known as running costs.

In the most perfect form of my assessment system and one which would be used for very large consumers, I take an ordinary meter which measures the total amount of electrical energy consumed in a quarter,

assuming this is tobe the period of time for which bills are sent in. The rate in money for which the consumer will be charged on this instrument will be less. in fact considerably less, than is charged by companies which base their entire charge on the ordi- In addition there will which is read from the maximum-demand meter. This maximum-demand meter op erates as follows: If the consumer does not think he is going to use more than twenty lamps, say, at any one time during the quarter. he sets the pointer at a mark corresponding to a maximum demand of twenty lamps. T he scale, however. is calculated in money values and not in lamps. If the consumer throws twenty-one lamps int-o circuit at an one time, his lamps will be made to flicker by the maximum-demand meter. He must therefore put out a lamp or throw his scale onthe maximum-demand meter to a higher point. But so far as the assessmeter isconcerned, the amount which will figure in his bill will be the same whether the consumer burns twenty lamps for five minutes or for the entire quarter. The consumers bill, in fact, will be made up of two items one read from the meter which registers the total amount of electrical energy consumed quarterly, at the low rate which my system of metering makes possible, plus the number of shillings read off from the maximumdemand meter. In this way the consumer will pay an amount part of which corresponds to the running costs and part of which corresponds to the standing ciarges due to the capitalization account, the latter being determined by..his maximum demand. as it should be. In this way. the consumer will-pay a fairer rate as against his fellow consumers and one more closely corresponding to the just demands of those who have invested their capital in the enterprise of supplying him with current.

lVith ordinary customers who do not use a great deal of current. the first meter above mentioned. that which registers the total amount of electrical energv consumed in the quarter, may be dispensed with and the customer will be charged as if he usedthe maximum amount of current for a certain number of hours, say three hours. each day. In this case the maximum-demand meter will remain exactly as it now is except that there will be added to each of the numbers now on the scale a correspondingly higher figure representing the money charge for a supposedly normal use of so much current per quarter, sav a use of three hours per day. Instead of having two separate meters with two scales. there will, in'this case. be a single meter with a scale summatively calibrated upon two principles of charge.

M instruments may be constructed so that bv means'ot a special loose or removable key provided. the consumer may fix his own assessment: but when once fixed he cannot reduce it. nor would it be reduced unless a general alteration in the scaling of the instruments were made by the suppliers. If, however. the consumer desires to increase the number of lamps. or other consuming demeans ofa special'key a traveling contact demand, then he can raise his assessment as will be hereinafter explained. An interfer ing device is provided whereby should he endeavor to 'obtain more electricity than the maximum allowed-him under the setting of "the instrument his supply is caused to be cut off, or the pressure to be reduced intermittently or for a time or a defective supply to be given otherwise so that hislamps will fail to give a proper light or his other apparatus to give a proper eflect. Any visible or audible means may be provided togive warning that the fixed maxi- .mumis being exceeded in so persistent and troublesome'a manner as to make the use of the lamps. uncomfortable, which case the visible or audible means is also an interfering device. The consumer can then either reduce his demand or increase his assessment. Then another feature of my instrument is that the consumer may at any time reduce the demand at which the instrument will annunciate and so set a limit on the energy which can beconsumed in a given period. Although the assessment cannot be reduced the consumption of energy may be varied at will. I i

' In order that the scope of my invention may be more readily understood I shall proceed to describe, by way of types or examples, certainiorms thereof.

Figure 1 shows one form of my invention.

' Figs. Qandfifshdw a more concrete embodimerit of:-

' hot wire i'roltmeter.

. use any 1 amount of current up to a' certain limit letus say that for which he would be {charged at the rate of 20/- per quarter. By

piece or traveling device abutting against a loose index or pointer is caused to travel over a resistance and move thesaid index until it points to the indication 20 upon the scale. In parallel with this resistance is the hot wire already mentioned and this hot wire acts upon a switch, such for example as one -""of the Well known forms having a rocking lever whose extremities dip into mercury cups, in such manner that when the propor-- tion of the current which the consumer is taking and which proportion passes through .the hot wire is such as to cause sui'ficient expansion thereof aspring or lever or other device connected with the hot wire will cause the said switc 7 arm to rock and break circuit atone point and .make it at another through a -second resistance. hereinafter the dimming resistance. The re-'.

sult of the interposition of this dimmin resistance is to cause the consumers lamps to give less light or any other consuming devicethat he may be using to be less efi'ective and thus announce to him the necessity of switching off one or more; of his lamps or otherwise consuming less current. Immediately after such dimming effect however less current will flow through the hot wire because it is now in series with the dimming resistance and it will contract and 'the switch will be rocked in the opposite direction until contact be made as at first. The dimming resistance is now out out of circuit again, the hot wire re-heated, that is to say more intensely heated, and the cycle of operations will take place as before. The irritating elfect of this blinking operation will induce the consumer, if he has not already switched off some current, to increase his allowance which can be done by again applying the special key to the squared end 65 (see Fig. 1 and moving the traveling contact and pointer until the latter points to some higher assessment, say 25/- per quarter. This form of my invention is i'llustrated-in'Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings in which 1 is the scale, 2 the traveling contact piece, 3 the index against whichthe said traveling contact pieceabuts, 4 the resistance, 5 the hot wire, 6 the switch, 7 the rocking lever, 8 and 9 the mercury cups, 10 the spring or lever connected with the hot wire and 11 the dimming resistance. The instrument in this case is illustrated with the parts in the positions which they occupy when no currentis passing or when the current is within the limit for which the instrument is set. In this position current passes from main terminal 12 to mercury cup 8, thence through the switch arm 7 of switch 6 into. the mercury cup 30. into which the end of spring 10 dips. From this point the current dividespartpassing through hot wire 5 to main terminal 29 and part passing through slide wire 41 to the traveling contact piece 2 and thence through part of resistance 4 to the said second main terminal 29. If now the current increases beyond the limit for which the instrument is set the increasedheating of the hot wire 5 willcause it to expand to a suficient extent to throw over the switch 6 so that contact will be broken at 8 and made at 9. The current instead of'now passing directly from main terminal 12 through mercury cup 8 to switch 6 will now pass from the said terminal through dimming resistance 11 and mercury cup 9 to the said switch. This will reduce the current flowing in the circuit and will cause the consumers'lamps to giveless light or his other consuming devices to be less'efi'ective so as to' 'announce to him the necessity of reducing his current consumpv esuvedf I It will be seen that the consumer may at any-timevary'the demand at which the instrument will annunciate. Thus should he "with it to, annunciate at a demand lower than that corresponding withthe position o'f fchisloose index he has merely to insert his key on the squared end and turn it Soas to lower the traveling device. In so doing however he does not reduce his assess In Figs. 2, and 3, 1 illustrate my inven'- tion as embodied in a more concrete form of instrument, Fig. 2 being a front view with the front of the case of the instrument andthe scale removed and Fig. 3 being a' side view with the side of the case re moved. The instrument illustrated in these figures differs only in minor details from that" previously described. In this form the diverting resistance embraces two resistance wires 4 and 4* (see Fig. 3) which lie in a vertical plane normal to the back of the instrument and which are bridged by traveling contact 2. Integral with the traveling contact Qbut insulated therefrom is a part- 2* which makes contact with a slide wire 78 and which also carries a spring contact 2 which bears against a contact plate 91 which is connected with the dimming resistance. The part 2 further serves to move the resting pointer 3 on the assessment being increased. The scale 1 is shownin edge view in Fig. 3 but is absentffrom Fig. 2.- It is attached at its "upper and lower ends to .brackets76 and 77 respectively.

is a device by means of which the hot wire 5. may be flexibly adjusted. The dim venture...

ming resistance in this instrument takes the form ofa number of incandescent lamps 11 The various electrical connections are not shown in these two figures as these are in tended merely to show the parts of "an actual instrument constructed in accordance with my invention. Such electrical connections will however be readily understood from the description of Fig. 1 of the drawings.

In the form of instrument illustrated in these figures the dimming resistance consists of carbon filament incandescent lamps and as is well known the resistance in the case of such lamps decreases with increase of current and consequent increase of tem- It is therefore in this case to provide any mechanical device for decreasing the dimming resistance on increasing the assessment.

1. hare descriled how the consuming device, whether itbe a lamp or a m for or the like-may be caused to operate ined'ectively, as by becoming dim or by. blinking or otherwise and this is the preferable way of interfering wita the consumers consumption when he exceeds the maximum demand for which his instrument is set. It is obvious, however, that I might interfere with the consumers quiet consumption, when he has exceeded his maximum demand, in any other suitable way so that the customer would cut down his current below his scaled maximum or else increase his assessment by properly moving the pointer. 'vT-hc term interfering device, as employed by me, is therefore broad enough to include devices which interfere with the quiet and proper enjoyment of current by the consumer whether such interference is direct or indirect.

I may say in conclusion that I have shown merely one form of interfering device operating by the expansion and contraction of a wirebut that many other forms of interfering device operating upon a variety of different principles might be substituted therefor. I prefer to show what I consider to be the best form of my invention and not to load my specification down with a number of equivalent forms, all of which would be obvious to the skilled electrician once he had understood the generic principles of my invention.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is l 1. An apparatus for indicating a fair charge for electrical current supplied comprising an instrument scaled to indicate a charge corresponding to the current consumed; a movable index adapted to travel over a scale, calibrated to indicate a charge which varies as the maximum demand varies but, once set, does not change under variation of current supply; and an interfering device thrown into operation when the maximum demand is exceeded substantially .riation of current supply; a device capable of being moved in either direction but moving the index in only one direction; and an interfering device thrown into operation when the maximum demand is exceeded substantially as described.

10 current supply; and an interfering device thrown into operation when the maximum demand is exceeded substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence 15 of two subscribing witnesses.

ETHELBERT THOMAS RUTHVEN MURRAY. Witnesses: 7

' RIPLEY WILSON,

CLAREnfcE-P. Lumen. 

